Gaskill 2018 Project Summary/Abstract The objective of this Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Veterinary Laboratory Response Network (Vet-LRN) Capacity Building project is to support enhanced human and animal food safety by strengthening the capacity, collaboration, and integration of food-safety laboratories and networks, thereby facilitating an effective and coordinated response to future human and animal food safety issues. The overall goal of the program is to complement, develop, improve and use university, state, and federal veterinary diagnostic laboratory testing capabilities. The goal of this specific application is to obtain funding for microwave digestion equipment used to prepare biological, feed and other samples for metal analyses used to diagnose metal intoxication or deficiency cases associated with feeds or drugs. This will expand the laboratory's capability ad capacity to perform food-safety related testing for the FDA Vet-LIRN program and investigate potential animal foodborne illness outbreaks.